"Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own."

Join Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee and culture analyst Sharon Ann Lee for a conversation about the life and philosophy of Bruce Lee. Each episode will dig deep into Bruce’s philosophy to provide guidance and action on how to cultivate our truest selves.

This podcast is a labor of love and a gift to you. If you find it valuable and want to support us, please make a small donation or use our Amazon link. Thank you!

This episode we sit down with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge Winner, Mahmoud Hamed! He shares with us his experience with the challenge and how approaching life from a place of love has deepened his daily interactions.

“Many people are still bound by tradition; when the elder generation says ‘no’ to something, then these other people will strongly disapprove of it as well. If the elders say that something is wrong, then they will believe that it is wrong. They seldom use their mind to find out the truth and seldom express sincerely their real feeling. The simple truth is that these opinions on such things as racism and traditions, which are nothing more than a ‘formula’ laid down by these elder people’s experience. As we progress and time changes, it is necessary to reform this formula.”

Patience was something that Bruce Lee tried to cultivate. His wife Linda said that he would get very frustrated by other people not being able to match his timeline or if they would say they would do something and then not do it. Bruce was in dynamic motion all of the time. He had follow through so when others did not he would get frustrated.

This episode we sit down with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge Winner, Mahmoud Hamed! He shares with us his experience with the challenge and how approaching life from a place of love has deepened his daily interactions.

For this episode we talked with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Mary Cheyne. If you’ve been following the Bruce Lee Challenge, then you know that we couldn’t just pick one winner due to all the wonderful submissions we received. Mary was kind enough to join us and share her experience participating in the challenge.

We had a chance to talk with another Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner, Bryce Young, who came all the way from Montana to record with us. Bryce shared with us his experience doing the challenge, how he found the podcast during a difficult time, and how participating in the podcast challenge changed his life.

“Defeat is a state of mind; no one is very defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to exert greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth.”

This episode we had a great time talking with Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner Michael R. about his experience with the challenge and how practicing Bruce Lee’s philosophy for two weeks changed his life.

“The times of drastic change are times of passions. We can never be fit and ready for that which is wholly new, we have to adjust ourselves and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. We undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. A population subjected to drastic change is thus a population of misfits and misfits live and breathe in an atmosphere of passion.”

The idea of True Flow comes directly from Bruce Lee’s physical study of martial arts and specifically from his art of Jeet Kune Do, which literally translated is the Way of the Intercepting Fist.

One of the core tenets behind Jeet Kune Do is that there are not separate movements of offense and defense, they can happen simultaneously and flow quickly together. This is an idea that can be applied to our movements in life, bridging the gap between happenings so that you can flow easier from one thing to the next.

Choiceless Awareness is a path to peace of mind. It means having awareness in the moment as things are unfolding but not making a choice or judgment one way or the other about whether it’s good or bad.

Bruce talks about how, “There is an awareness without choice, without demand, an awareness in which there is no anxiety and in that state of mind there is perception and it's perception alone that will resolve our problems.”

Often the immediate association with the word “Faith” is a religious one, but that’s not the type of faith we are talking about in this episode. The definition of faith in the dictionary is: "complete trust or confidence in someone or something." That’s how Bruce Lee interpreted “faith," to have trust and confidence in ones self and abilities. Bruce’s definition of faith is: the spiritual power of man’s will.

We were overwhelmed with the responses for the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge and found it impossible to pick just one winner, so we’ll be having several winners join us as guests on the podcast.This week we welcome our first Podcast Challenge winner, Kyoko @Jinjabrew! She lives in LA so Kyoko was able to join us in the studio for this special episode.

For all of his adult life, Bruce Lee was on a journey to understand the truest essence of himself. We remember him as the ultra confident movie star with martial arts mastery but even Bruce Lee was a work in progress.

This episode marks our one-year anniversary for the podcast! We created this podcast to honor and celebrate Bruce Lee's philosophy and share it with the world. Thank your for listening and going on this journey with us.

Gentleness was key to Bruce Lee’s philosophy of life and practice as an artist.

Bruce equated gentleness with his idea of emptiness, non-resistance internally, the place in which the moment can happen and where spontaneous action springs from. Gentleness equals life. Gentleness is strength.

Intuition is often described as your “gut feeling,” but Bruce Lee defined intuition in many different ways--as body feel, the root, the creative tide in us, natural instinct, guidance, and free movement of spirit.

“What we are after is the root and not the branches. The root is real knowledge; the branches are surface knowledge. Real knowledge breeds “body feel” and personal expression; surface knowledge breeds mechanical conditioning and imposing limitation and squelches creativity.”

Meditation has been around for thousands of years, but it’s recently become popular with a broad audience. Modern people are needing it to create peace from a frenzied world with unrelenting distractions and demands.

The Art of Soul is about living the artist’s life and mastering the art of living as a whole human being.“The ultimate aim of the artist is to lay hold of the art of living. Be a master of living for the soul creates everything.”

“The mind is a fertile garden – it will grow anything you wish to plant – beautiful flowers or weeds. And it is with successful, healthy thoughts or negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind, for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.”

Bruce Lee often carried notes to himself or affirmations on notecards in his wallet. One of these read: “Be aware of our conditioning. Drop and dissolve inner blockage.” “Inner to outer – we start by dissolving our attitude not by altering outer conditions.”

Bruce Lee played many characters that were unassuming and didn’t want to get into fights, but then could kick everyone’s butt in 10 seconds when he needed to. As a small Asian man, no one expected that sort of power from him. Because of the characters he played, many people think of Bruce Lee as an Underdog who became a Top Dog through dedicated training. He gave everyone who felt underestimated or undervalued hope and strength.

Bruce Lee lived his life as a human being who was connected to all of humankind—one unified family on this planet. He said, “You know how I like to think of myself? As a human being. Because under then sky, under the heavens, there is but one family.”

Truth was an important concept to Bruce Lee and it shows up often in his journal entries. But the way he used the word “truth” was not to describe a fact or to be the opposite of a lie. He wrote about a deeper, more of a philosophical, spiritual definition of truth—a concept close to the Tao. It’s why we’re calling it The Real Truth.

Taky Kimura once wrote Bruce Lee a letter saying that the students at Bruce’s Gung Fu studio were asking for more techniques. Bruce wrote back that they didn’t need “more” but to go deeper into the practice and expand the students’ imagination

Bruce Lee embodied so much confidence both onscreen and off that you might have assumed that he was born that way. But in fact, self-confidence was a trait he practiced and cultivated with clear intention and a daily ritual.

“Being a real human being” is a concept that comes up often in Bruce’s writings, he didn’t want to be considered just an actor or a martial artist, but as a human being who was growing, evolving and creating.

Gung fu translated means: discipline and training toward the mastery of some skill. It is applied to martial arts but it can be applied to anything. Ultimately, Gung fu is a pathway toward mastery and a deeper understanding of yourself and life.

The idea of Personal Liberation was very important to Bruce Lee. This idea was so important that his wife Linda included the quote “Your inspiration continues to guide us towards our personal liberation,” on Bruce’s headstone in Seattle where he and his son Brandon are buried.

“Life is wide, limitless, there is no border, no frontier.” Bruce Lee believed that there were no limitations or borders in life, and this is reflected in his core tenet of JKD (Jeet Kune Do): “Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.”

This week we talk with Bruce Lee superfan Daniele Bolelli. Shannon first met Bolelli when he was interviewed for the documentary I Am Bruce Lee and later she was a guest on his podcast “The Drunken Taoist.” Bolelli is an Italian born author, college professor, martial artist, and has two podcasts, “The Drunken Taoist” and “History on Fire.”

During one of the busiest times in his life, Bruce Lee wrote a letter to himself titled “In My Own Process”. When Bruce wrote this, he had just halted production on Game of Death was in mid-prep for Enter the Dragon which included re-writing script pages, creating fight choreography, and being a producer.

“I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision, it is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand. Whether it is the godhead or not, I feel this great force, this untapped power, this dynamic something within me. This feeling defies description and no experience with which this feeling may be compared. It is something like a strong emotion mixed with faith, but a lot stronger.”

When Bruce Lee spoke about the Art of Dying, he did not mean dying in the literal sense, but as a metaphor for letting go of the past and things that limit you, so you can be a fluid human in the present moment.

Bruce Lee started writing poetry when he moved from Hong Kong to the U.S. at age 18. He wrote poetry to express his feelings of contemplativeness, love, melancholy, and oneness with nature. The poetry was a way to process and understand his own feelings.

The Yin Yang symbol is circle with two interlocking teardrop shapes in complimentary colors with a dot on each side. It’s used in popular culture, but it is a core Chinese philosophy. The Yang side represents positivity, firmness, masculinity, substantiality, brightness, day, and heat. The Yin side represents negativity, softness, femininity, insubstantiality, darkness, and coldness.

Bruce’s wife and Shannon’s mom Linda Lee Cadwell joins us again and she shares more stories about Bruce, telling of his spirit of generosity and charity. And for the first time she shares stories about their son Brandon Lee.

11/27/16 is Bruce Lee’s birthday and he would have been 76 years old today. In honor of his birthday we are reposting the Be Water, My Friend episode (#2) with a special birthday message from Shannon Lee.

At the request of fans, this week we discuss Bruce Lee’s approach to nutrition and fitness! Nutrition and fitness were ongoing obsessions for Bruce during his life, and Bruce Lee was constantly experimenting on himself and seeing what worked for his body.

This week we talk with Bruce Lee Superfan Steve Aoki. Steve is a Grammy nominated Electro house musician, DJ and record producer. Steve’s unique musical life is the subject of a new Netflix documentary called “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead."

“Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.” From a very young age Bruce Lee was a rebellious thinker with a keen awareness that established systems could restrict the full development of a human being.

In this week’s episode we are finishing up our 3-part discussion of Bruce Lee’s affirmations with the 7th and final affirmation: Willpower.

Affirmation 7: “Recognizing that the power of will is the supreme court over all other departments of my mind, I will exercise it daily when I need the urge to act for any purpose, and I will form habits designed to bring the power of my will into action at least once daily.”

This week we continue our discussion of Bruce Lee’s Affirmations with three more concepts: Emotions, Reason, and Conscience. Even though we are discussing each affirmation individually, Bruce Lee used all 7 together to help achieve wellbeing.

This week we discuss Bruce Lee’s affirmations. These are 7 ideas he wrote on small note cards and carried with him always: Memory, Subconscious Mind, Imagination, Reason, Emotion, Conscience and Will Power. These 7 ideas are part of a whole system of well being and self-cultivation Bruce developed. And they work together as a harmonious ecosystem. Today we discuss the first three ideas: Memory, Subconscious Mind, and Imagination.

Bruce Lee, was an extremely joyous person who loved to laugh. It’s an often overlooked part of his personality but he loved to joke and play around, and make other people laugh. He also thought of happiness as a synonym for well-being.

In this week’s episode we have a special guest Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee’s wife and Shannon’s mom. Linda shares stories of her life with Bruce, how they first met and what it was like to be married to and in a partnership with him. She said that Bruce considered his greatest accomplishment was being a father. She describes what kind of father he was to Brandon and Shannon, and how his unusual schedule allowed him to spend more time with his kids than other fathers at the time.

“The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it until this moment. Now I see I will never find the light unless, like a candle, I am my own fuel.”

“Walk on.” There’s a story behind this famous quote. In 1969, Bruce severely injured his back during a routine training session because he didn’t warm up properly. He was told he could never practice martial arts again and may never walk normally. Devastated by this news, Bruce became a researcher of his injury, his body and ultimately created his own path to healing.

In this week’s episode we talk about the three core tenets of Jeet Kune Do: Simplicity, Directness, Freedom. Bruce Lee applied these tenets to martial arts, but also to everyday life. Shannon shares the story of the pivotal fight that led Bruce Lee to develop his own martial arts philosophy and way: Jeet Kune Do.

This week we discuss harmony. Harmony was an important part of Bruce Lee’s philosophy and the way he lived his life. He was always seeking connection over opposition and never needed to compare himself with anyone else. He truly believed that we are one family—black, white, brown, yellow, red—we are all one.

“To change with change is the changeless state.”Change often brings fear, and many times we resist.But if you can flow and be adaptable, you can move through all of the things that life throws at you, with much ease you will remain in a place where you wont freak out and you will remain in a changeless state.

“What was that? An Exhibition? We need emotional content. Now try again!”

What did Bruce Lee mean by “Emotional Content?”He was describing the feeling of being totally present in your body and connected to your own life force. A spiritual life force that is the energy of creation. This force helps you become a human being from moment to moment. When you are creating emotional content, you are creating in awareness, openness and receptivity to everything around you. You are in a state of relating to your surroundings. You are not in isolation—you are connected.

This week we talk about how Bruce Lee documented his goals, valued mistakes and created a personal definition of success. A dedicated journal writer, Lee consistently wrote down his big and small goals. He believed that all goals did not have to be achieved, they were a way to orient yourself towards a big dream with meaning. They were also an opportunity to make mistakes along the way, learn and adapt as necessary—being in flow, using no way as way.

How did Bruce Lee interpret the ideas of Originating and Innovating? This week we discuss Bruce’s unique take on these ideas. His definition of these words have nothing to do with the buzzwords of business. Originating is the process of self-actualizing and becoming your true self and innovating is what gets created in the world when you are connected to your authentic energy.

"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him.”

This week’s show covers Bruce Lee’s thoughts on self actualization vs. "self-image" actualization. He did not look to imitate others, he was committed to going deeply within himself to find the truth about his own unique essence and how to express it honestly in the world. He was constantly working on understanding his true self through active observation, questioning, researching and journaling.

We discuss Bruce Lee’s most famous philosophical quote. What does it mean and what inspired him to come up with it? Shannon shares personal stories about her dad and unpacks the quote to help us understand its depth and meaning.

The Bruce Lee family company is a tiny family startup in a very unique situation. Millions of fans around the world but they didn’t control the rights to Bruce Lee’s name and likeness due to a bad deal that left a giant media conglomerate in charge. Learn how Shannon Lee tapped into her dad’s philosophy and wisdom to reclaim the rights and create a new company to serve her dad’s mission of personal freedom.

Subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud, & Stitcher:

Please select the category that best reflects what you are contacting us about.

No Unsolicited Submission Notice: *

Please note that it is the policy of BRUCE LEE ENTERPRISES, LLC (including all of its affiliates, collectively “BLE”) to NOT accept unsolicited submissions of any kind. Any and all literary submissions, whether verbal or in writing, such as treatments, screenplays, scripts, proposals, pitches or any other materials relating to potential productions of any kind shall be considered unsolicited submissions. Any such unsolicited communications (in writing or otherwise) shall only be reviewed to the minimum extent required to determine that it includes an unsolicited submission to BLE, the contents of which will not be taken notice of, reviewed or opened. It is BLE’s policy to then promptly destroy and/or delete all such unsolicited submissions unopened, if possible, and unread and without retaining and/or making copies.